


Tough Times Never Last But Tough People Do

by terrifier



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Fire, Gen, Serious Injuries, The Doctor (Doctor Who) Whump, Violence, Whump
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-23
Updated: 2020-01-23
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:20:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22377835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/terrifier/pseuds/terrifier
Summary: The Doctor is hurt facing off against her latest threat.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 84





	Tough Times Never Last But Tough People Do

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings for violence, as the tags already say. Enjoy😊

Fire. There's fire everywhere, tentatively licking the walls and reaching for the ceiling, anything to find more oxygen even though the spacious room is filling with dark smoke and ash.

The walkway is blocked off from both sides, trapping the Doctor and her latest threat in the centre of it. The metal railings are burning. The Doctor can feel the heat rolling off of them in waves from where she stands inches away, almost completely backed up against them as the creature stalks closer.

She isn't sure what this creature wants. Its bloodlust is strong and viscous, and its eyes are solely on her. She doesn't know where her fam is, but as long as they're not there with her, that's fine. She doesn't know what she'd do if this creature's attention was on them, too.

Well, she'd probably have a plan if they were there, actually.

The added pressure to think of an escape with her friends' lives on the line would jump-start her mind and she'd have a plan, but alas, they're not there and she can't see a way out.

Glancing down, below the walkway, she sees more orange flames, climbing their way up and slowly growing. They've almost reached the underside of the walkway, and she can feel the heat seeping through the soles of her boots.

"I really can't see a way out of this," she whispers to herself nervously.

It's barely audible over the roaring of the flames, but her following gulp is thunder in her ears.

The creature opens its wide mouth and flashes its razor-sharp, yellow teeth at her. It looks smug, despite its lack of defining features. It probably knows she's caught. 

With one step closer from the creature, the Doctor mimics it by taking one back. The small of her back makes contact with the burning railings behind her and she tenses. She needs a plan, she tells herself in her most stern voice. 

Looking around as the creature continues stalking closer on heavy feet, she mentally kicks herself and tells herself to look closer. There _has_ to be a way out somewhere. Something must be out of place. A way for her to escape somehow. 

But all she can see is fire, fire, _fire_. Everywhere. Metal turning orange and mimicking the flames with its heat, the wooden doors either end of the walkway blackened and burning, her entire surroundings burning.

Like Gallifrey, she thinks. 

And that's her moment of weakness. 

Her mind flashes back to opening the TARDIS doors and finding her home crumbling and smoking, in ruins, and the creature lunges. 

It doesn't even tear into her like she would have expected from such a vicious creature. No, she supposes that would have been too kind (to kill her quickly). Instead, it shoves her. Its claws catch her collarbone, tearing through her clothes and cutting her, but she bears that no mind as she stumbles, trips, and falls backwards.

Backwards, over the railing and into the roaring flames.

Someone screams her name.

* * *

Ryan, Graham, and Yaz run. They run towards the wooden door at the end of the corridor. It's engulfed in flames from the bottom, but that doesn't sway them.

Ryan stumbles to a stop when they reach the door and only hesitates briefly before bringing his foot up and slamming it into the door. He does it once more before the door budges and flies open, hitting the railing of the walkway that has been revealed.

The fam can barely see past the flames and grey smoke that is seemingly everywhere, but in-between the flames and through the smoke, they can just make out the form of the Doctor and the creature. The latter is looming tall above their friend, its silhouette intimidating and large, but the Doctor stands tall, too, despite being pressed against the railings and there being no way out.

Yaz makes to run through the flames, but Ryan and Graham immediately grab hold of her and pull her out of harm's way. 

"I'm sure she's got a trick up her sleeve," Graham reassures Yaz, but his voice is weak and unsure.

And then, right before their eyes and with no warning, the creature shoves the Doctor. Their friend stumbles, grabs hold of the railings only to quickly let go, and then falls over the walkway into the fire below.

Yaz screams her name, Ryan shouts for her, and Graham freezes in shock and denial at what they've all just seen.

The creature looks in their direction when they yell, but it doesn't make a move to approach them, seemingly realising the situation it's in for the first time. It eyes the flames surrounding it and then lets out a screech that hurts the fam's ears. They cover their ears and turn away from the sight of the creature panicking.

When they look up, they see the creature where, in its panic and fear to get away from the flames, it shuffles around and spins in circles several times. It moves back and back, and back, until, eventually, it too hits the railings, its knees buckling as it burns itself on the metal and falls backwards, meeting the same fate as its victim.

Something explodes in the distance and Graham takes hold of Ryan and Yaz's wrists, beginning to drag them back the way they came so they can get out to safety.

"But the Doctor-" Ryan starts to protest.

"We have to go. Look, I'm sorry, son, but she fell into the fire," Graham interrupts him, tugging on his grandson's arm.

"She didn't fall, she was pushed!" Yaz cries.

"I'm sorry," Graham shakes his head sadly.

There are tears falling from his blue eyes, just like Ryan and Yaz, but he knows they have to get out of there before they're killed, too, so he drags them back through the corridor and down the safest route to the exit.

* * *

They make it back to the TARDIS with just enough time to spare before the entire building explodes. Debris and glass, and fire meet the air all at once and the fam duck inside the ship in time to save themselves from any damage.

As soon as the door is shut behind them, they all fall to the floor in horror. Yaz lets out a pained cry and curls in on herself, tucking her head into her knees, and Graham wraps her into a big bear hug as he soundlessly sobs. Ryan sits beside them, wide, unseeing eyes filled to the brim with tears and staring ahead at the doors as if waiting for the Doctor to bound inside, unharmed and an idea in mind for their next adventure in time and space.

And then, it's like he had finally, for once in his life, wished hard enough, because the next thing he knows, the doors fly open, hitting the walls behind them, and in stumbles the Doctor herself.

She's not unharmed like Ryan had hoped, but she there and _alive._

 _"_ Oh, my days," Ryan blurts as he scrambles to his feet and hurries over to her.

The Doctor's clothes are all singed and burned, but there's enough of them left to give her some privacy. Beneath her clothes, where they can see her skin, it's burned and red, and raw. There's a slash in her collarbone, no longer bleeding but there's blood surrounding it to prove that it had bled a lot.

As Ryan gets closer, he can see her hair is singed in some places at the ends, making it an uneven length, and on the right side of her neck, reaching up to her jawline, there's another burn.

Before Ryan can even reach the Doctor, she slumps. Quickly, Ryan reaches out and manages to catch her. As slow as he can, he lowers her to the floor and places her gently on her back. Graham and Yaz kneel beside them, their eyes wide and alarmed, and Ryan feels as shocked as them, but he also feels great relief. He already lost his nan and his mom, he doesn't need to lose his best friend too.

"Oh, my God, how did she..." Yaz trails off.

The Doctor wheezes and her brows scrunch up. 

"Door," she coughs, "door... on lower level."

That's all she gets out before her head tilts to the side slightly and the fam can tell she's unconscious for real now.

"She needs medical attention," Yaz points out urgently.

"Right, right," Graham nods, "we should get her to a hospital. Wait- I dunno how to fly this thing."

"Me neither," Ryan's eyes widen in panic.

"Nor me," Yaz said, "what do we do?"

A groan comes from the central console and the trio look up and at the crystal pillar in the centre of it. It's weird, but it almost feels like the TARDIS is trying to tell them something.

There's a hissing noise to their right and when they look over, they see part of the wall has now become a door and said door is sliding open. Through the open doorway, they can see a sterile white room with a bed. They realise it's a medbay.

"Come on, let's get her in there," Ryan orders as he picks the Doctor up underneath her arms.

With a nod Graham grabs her legs and together, the pair carry the Doctor through the console room and into the medbay with Yaz following anxiously behind.

"Put her on the bed, son," Graham tells Ryan.

With a nod, he heaves the Doctor up high enough to lift her onto the bed. Graham does the same with her legs until eventually, she's placed onto the bed as carefully as they can manage and they've adjusted her so she's in the centre, rather than on the edge.

"What do we do now?" Ryan asks worriedly, unable to tear his eyes away from the sight of his injuries friend.

"I've only had a bit of medical training and it didn't cover burns, but we should probably clean them then apply a cream," Yaz says. 

"Sounds good to me," Graham eagerly agrees.

With how much the Doctor's clothes are already burned and singed, there's no time for modesty so Yaz decides to let the boys stay so they can help treat the Doctor's burns. They're on her legs, arms, torso, and one on her neck, so she needs all the help she can get.

It takes them half an hour to clean all of the burns as much as they can and when they've finally done that and are looking for something to treat them with, the TARDIS steps in and quite literally tosses a burn cream at them. 

Ryan juggles with it for a second before finally gaining a steady grip on it and taking it back over to the Doctor to begin applying it.

He, Graham, and Yaz work together to apply the cream to any burns on the Doctor's body. Once they've added it to the burns, they locate some bandages and begin wrapping as many of the burns as they can to prevent further infection and keep them clean.

With the Doctor's injuries treated as well as they can be by three humans with no in-depth medical training or experience, the only thing now is to sit and wait.


End file.
